Month: December 2007

Environmentalism has become a business advantage while home building is in a slump. There is a fast growing market for green homes and green homes are becoming synonymous with â€œbuyer bewareâ€.

Building green means incorporating environmental features over and above mandated code standards, it also means: a field that exists largely outside official regulation. Industry standards can vary across different regions in the country.

Agencies like the Florida Green Building Coalition (founded in 2000) set key statewide standards. It is a nonprofit partnership of builders, consultants and academics. Their green home designation covers conditions across eight categories including green features like energy and water efficiency which are well known features, but also lesser known aspects such as site, lot choice and disaster mitigation. And this is where things start getting murky.

Builders may be doing three or four â€˜greenâ€™ items and they call themselves a green builder, but they have no documentation. Three or four things do not make a house green. The public needs to become more educated on what makes a house â€˜greenâ€™.

Builders can choose any way they want to score at least 100 points out of 300 maximum on the list offered by the coalition green home designation. Unless they ask, a buyer may never know why a home is green.

Well we said we would not do it again but something’s definitely missing in our house. Thurman, our cocker spaniel, died right around the time the kids grew up and moved out and it doesn’t look like we are going to be getting any grandkids anytime soon. We’ve always had a dog in the house and once a dog lover, always a dog lover, I guess.

So, here he is the new Lipply member. His name is Buddy. He’s a Cavalier King Charles Tri-Color. He won’t be home until after Christmas because he’s only 5 weeks old so we have plenty of time to get ready for him.

In case you don’t know about Cavaliers they are the perfect lap dog. They only grow to be about 18 lbs. and love to be around you. They don’t like to be alone for too long and breeders won’t sell them to you if you work all day outside the home. I’m in and out all day long, but my wife is almost always around because she works from home. Buddy will get lots of attention and love. I may even start bringing clients to the house to show him off!

It’s always nice to be recognized for a job well done, and while we didn’t really expect to be signaled out, we are honored to be the November 2007 “Broker / Agent of the Month”.This is really quite an accomplishment for our team as only 12 agents per year are chosen – out of the thousands that make up the Pinellas Suncoast Board of Realtors here in the Tampa Bay area of Florida.

In case you don’t currently know us, our team is made up of myself (Bob Lipply), Joe Gibbons, ThomasTowns, and our newest member Arlene Colecchia.While my wife Donna doesn’t want me to say she’s part of the team, she helps out considerably with website development, marketing, and just keeping everyone organized.

Attached is a copy of the piece that Broker/Agent Magazine ran in their monthly magazine for us.It’s distributed to all Pinellas Realtors and many other real estate industry professionals around the Tampa Bay area.The staff writer did a really good job portraying our team as we really are – hardworking professionals that enjoy serving people. We were all interviewed separately and had no idea how she was going to put it together.

We hope you will take a minute to read through it to get to know us better. And, if you are thinking about buying or selling a home in the Tampa Bay area, we would be honored to hear from you. Call 1-888-423-5775 or email us anytime.

Weather wise we never know what we are going to get for Christmas – it could be 50 degrees or 80 degrees on Christmas morning. But the nice thing is that we usually get a few cool days leading up to Christmas that helps us all get into the mood, remembering Christmas’s from when we were kids with snow and ice. We Floridians love our warm weather, obviously that’s why most of us moved here. But most of us will agree that it’s a welcome change around the holidays to get some cooler weather. Waking up to 40 degrees this morning was hard but by noon it should get into the 70s.

I remember my first Christmas in Florida. I went to the beach. Why? Because I thought it was a novel idea. I remember laying in the warm sun and beaming inside. I HATE the cold, I moved here for two reasons: a new life and a warm climate. And, lying on that beach on December 25th made me feel like I had really achieved them. That was almost 30 years ago and I have to admit I have never gone to the beach again on Christmas day but I still feel the same as I did all those years ago. I love living in Florida. I love the warm weather; I love the warm water in the Tampa Bay and everything Florida has become for me.

If you are even just thinking about moving to Florida and want someone to talk to about it, don’t hesitate to call us. We can spend as much time talking with you about our area, our weather, the job situation, the people, etc. We’re here to help you make an informed decision. Florida life is wonderful – but it is not for everyone. Is it for you?